The author is a writer from Virginia, who lived during the Civil War after which his prominent family fell on hard times. He popularized the plantation tradition genre of Southern writing, idealizing that life. This 1909 novel has a much different setting and plot from his other novels. The story follows a team of scientists and geologists as they embark on a dangerous mission to explore a newly discovered cave system that leads them to a mysterious underground world. As they delve deeper into the unknown, they encounter many creatures and adventure-think Jules Verne!